Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier Card – Higher Bonus!

Normally, this card rewards you with 25,000 miles after spending $1,000 in 90 days; however, for a limited time, the bonus is doubled, in both spending requirement ($2,000) and points earned (50,000). To me, this card is a no-brainer (and will likely be my next card), as Southwest has a fairly substantial footprint in the lower 48 and an increasing presence in Central America and the Caribbean. After the 90 days, you should have at least 52,000 points (50,000 bonus + at least 2,000 points [1 points for every dollar]).

Note: This card has a $99 annual fee, which is partially off-set by the bonus points on your cardmember anniversary.

What other benefits does thes card get you? Take a look:

2 points per dollar spent at Southwest, 1 point per dollar everywhere else

So, where can Southwest take you? And how many trips are you likely to get out of this bonus? Well using my home city as a template, let’s look at Laguardia here in New York.

First off, I’ve really always wanted to go to Austin, so I’ve been looking into going over Columbus weekend. On Southwest, I can fly out to Austin and back for $421.34, or use 24,493 points. And, if I’m feeling generous, I can take Nick with me. 😉

If I decide to go it alone, I can also jet off to to Chicago, which Southwest flies to non-stop from Laguardia. That long-weekend trip in August is either $297.96 or 17,566 points–I think I’ll use the points!

With both scenarios (two trips alone or one trip to Austin together), I’ve only used 42,059 or 48,986 of the 52,000+ points I could potentially earn with this card. Your mileage may vary, as Rapid Rewards points are linked to the dollar value of the ticket. That can either be really good or really bad, so make sure to do your research.

To find out if this might be good card for you, head over to the Southwest route map and check out where they fly from your local airport.

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So here’s the deal. I’m a twenty-something who’s travel ambitions are larger than my wallet sometimes likes to allow, but that’s what happens when you work for a small non-profit in NYC. Because of that, I’ve decided to create this blog to highlight that travel of all kinds–from weekend trips to Philly to a week in Hawai’i–are attainable.